1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle upper structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 61-007473 (JP 61-007473 U) describes a vehicle upper structure that includes a roof center reinforcement upper, a roof center reinforcement lower, and an upper bracket. With this vehicle upper structure, the roof center reinforcement upper is connected to an upper surface of the roof center reinforcement lower in a vehicle up and down direction, and the upper bracket is connected to a lower surface of the roof center reinforcement lower in the vehicle up and down direction. In other words, the vehicle upper structure is one in which only a bottom portion of the roof reinforcement is connected to a gusset.
However, with the related art described above, a collision load applied to a roof side rail is transmitted only at edge lines of a ventral surface when there is a collision with a vehicle side surface (i.e., when there is a side collision), so the gusset may easily deform and the sectional shape of the gusset may end up not being effectively utilized to the full extent. Thus, there is room for improvement in terms of inhibiting deformation of a vehicle upper portion.